Metaphor in Art & Life

Metaphor in Art & Life

Life is a Journey. Distance is Progress

Description of motion: Hand starts with palm facing body and then moves to a point further away from the body.Observed: 1-15-2015. Party.Example: "Even though it's been tough lately I'd really like to continue on with the project and see it to fruition."Use: Used to show motion towards a goal, sometimes in relation to having stopped.Metaphor:Life is a Journey.Distance is Progress.Explanation: SinceLife is a Journey, it also implies that the projects in our lives are also journeys. We think of journeys as having beginnings, middle and ends and so we think of our projects the same way. In this metaphor, Progress is Distance so we say things like "let's move forward" or "we've taken two steps back", etc. In the accompanying gesture this sense of distance is related to our physical body. The gesture starts close to us and then moves away from it which mimics the forward progress that is implied in the metaphor. Again, we think of "forward" as making progress because as we walk we move towards things. They get closer and closer to us. We use this physical experience to then think of abstractions as moving closer and closer or further and further away.Origin: Because we are physical bodies moving through space, we imagine our abstractions in the same way. Because we can move closer or further away to objects, we imagine we can move closer or further away to our goals. Same gesture as: Goal are Objects with Velocities